VIAFlights

This is what they did to me:

- Advertised some cheap tickets.

- Took my money.

- Sent me a 'booking confirmation' email. This did not include the tickets.

- Three days later, emailed me saying, 'We would like to inform you that your flight booking is not confirmed yet' and asking me to ring them.

- When I rang them, they said that the tickets weren't available. They tried to get me to pay more for tickets on a different day. I said no and asked for my money back.

- They said if I wanted the refund immediately, I would have to pay a fee. They said otherwise I would get the refund 'in the next billing cycle.'

- After I made a fuss, eventually they agreed to refund me immediately with no fee.

- Later they emailed me saying there was a delay in issuing the refund.

- I emailed them again 7 weeks later asking where the refund was. They said they'd look into it and get back to me. They never did get back to me.

- I emailed them again a few weeks later, and they ignored me.

- I requested a chargeback via my card company.

- Viaflights told the card company that no refund is due because the service was provided. Their evidence is the 'booking confirmation' email. They claim this even though they know that they never issued the tickets.

It seems that their business model is to take your money by offering tickets that they can't provide, then try to persuade you to pay more. If you say no, they hold onto your money for as long as possible. I guess that some people just give up and lose their money. Even if Viaflights are eventually forced to pay back the money, they have had the use of it for months.

Please help stop these fraudsters.

I booked a flight online with VIAFLIGHTS LTD as they were listed on a reputable search engine.

They provided me with e-tickets and reference numbers for airlines. So I initially thought everything was fine. A few days later when I tried to log into Emirates, for example, my booking was gone. So I called Emirates and the other airlines (3 in total) to find out what happened, and they said that the travel agent had cancelled the tickets immediately after booking them.

I called ViaFlights, and they said this was an accidental error, but I felt this was very suspect. They reissued the tickets a few days later in the same way. So I received 3 lots of e-tickets, all with working reference numbers and even seat allocations.

A few days went by, and I checked again, and the same thing had happened; my tickets had disappeared. So I called the airlines again, and they said that VIAFLIGHTS had cancelled the tickets immediately after booking them. The airlines then proceeded to say that this was a common scam and explained how it works.

ViaFlights will book a ticket with an airline and it will get issued; ViaFlights then have 48 hours to pay or cancel the tickets. They explained that these fraudsters will send customers the initial e-tickets, assuming that they will not be checked until the day of travel, and many people turn up to the airport to find out they have no ticket and ViaFlights keep the money.

As crazy as it sounds, because I was so desperate, I gave ViaFlights a 3rd chance, but the same thing happened, and they cancelled the flights immediately after issuing the tickets.

Please see their reviews; so many poor people being scammed. All their 5-star reviews are fakes. They have been removed from Skyscanner etc.

Please help stop them!

Please avoid this company, they are a big scammer, with a team of Indian people who talk in a fake British accent. IATA have not authorised which is a 1st condition to provide services in travel booking.

They sell tickets via their portal, but they don't pay the airline. They share with you a ticket with a status confirmed, but if you check on the airline site, it will show as payment not made or no booking reference found.

With me, they booked my ticket with a confirmed status, but when checked on the Airline with that PNR, it shows "Payment Awaiting" When I contacted their customer care, they said I have to pay £200 additional to get it confirmed.

On asking for a refund, they said you will have to pay cancellation charges. They forced me to pay an additional £110 to get my ticket confirmed or lose my £570, they also told me that this additional amount I have to pay due to a technical issue from their side, and they will reimburse this via £150 voucher that can be used in future flights.

When I was in process of booking my other flight I tried to book flight from their portal, there is no way you can use voucher, when I called their customer care, they said I have to pay £490 for the the ticket which is available at £330 on their site to use the voucher.

Be away from this company, and their reviews are mostly by their own team who are hired to only post good reviews and move these reviews to the bottom.

Wish my review remains at the top to alert other innocent people.

And ViaFlights.UK I know you would reply with there is no booking found so please refer to this reference no.- VF25011**** dated 14 and 15 Jan 2025